12/26/15

I am looking forward to it. Going with some family, then going out to dinner afterwards to Cedars Restaurant. The only fly in my ointment is the cold I have. It's being relentless., and I'm out of Dayquil. Phooey.

Our power has been out a couple more times since the 24th. It went out last night and came back on this morning around 7:30 or so. Between that and the blinking on and off, the computer that runs our printer broke as a result, so I can't do any printing until we fix the problem. It did stop snowing on Christmas day. Even got a bit of sunshine. It was nice to have a break.

I did have a great Christmas. As I said, the snow stopped falling. I got awesome gifts and daughter and husband loved the gifts they got. I am amazed at how successful we were at getting ready considering the shortened time we had, but Christmas Eve we went to bed completely done and ready. Even the stockings were full.

On Christmas day we went to our friends house for Christmas dinner and card playing, as usual, and had such a lovely time together. The dinner was delicious and the card game was fun. My favorite part of Christmas is doing this with them.

Well, I need to get ready to head out to the theater. Have a great evening.

12/24/15

I've been home, but too busy to blog. Had to scramble to get ready for Christmas. We had a fantastic trip. It was hard to come home.

I caught a nasty cold the very next day after we got home. So I've been scrambling while feeling wretched.

On top of that, we've been inundated with snow the last few days. Over 2 feet so far. Trees are falling all over the area from the weight of the snow, knocking out power. Ours has been out twice in just the last 24 hours, and the snow just keeps coming down. We get dug out and 6 hours later we gotta dig out again. Would someone please send a St. Bernard with a brandy cask?

This is our Christmas tree for the year 2015.

Liked it so much when it got to this point I decided ornaments would spoil it. I wrapped the last gift about half an hour ago and put it under the tree. So I'm ready, I guess. Bring on Christmas.

12/4/15

It's about time I blogged about this. I finished, blocked, and framed Snowman Row, the counted cross stitch project I've been working on for several years now. Yes, it's DONE! It's been done for awhile. I just hadn't got around to blogging it.

I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures here. It's dark around here of late (especially outside where I usually like to take my FO photos) and I don't have any cool lighting for doing large photography projects. You can click on the pics to embiggen them.

I finished the stitching last February, then it was pushed out of my mind by life I guess. I had intended to get it framed and whatnot so I could enter it in the fair. I guess I will enter it next year. After the fair, I got about the task of framing it.

I ordered the frame and mat from Frames by Mail. I learned an important lesson from this. Let me pass it on to you. I washed my project (soaked it in hot water with a scoop of Oxyclean-came out gorgeous) and let it dry. Then I measured it, still all wrinkled and stuff, and got a measurement of 33 inches wide by 5 inches high. So that is what I based the size of my mat and frame on. They arrived the week before I went to Michigan.

That was a big mistake. Should have ironed and blocked the thing before measuring, because after I did that, the picture was three inches longer and one inch wider! So the frame and mat I bought was way too small. Insert big frowny face here.

I had to reorder the whole framing kit and kaboodle. Rats. Money wasted. I suppose I could have returned the not fitting frame, but I didn't feel right about that because it's my mistake, not theirs. So I've squirreled it away in storage.

Learn from my mistake. Press and block your picture before measuring for framing.

By the way, Frames by Mail is a great company to do business with. I am quite happy with them. The frame I bought is Pecan wood and the mat is a dark green. It's a beautiful frame. Very nice quality. I love how it enhances my snowmen.

Our weather has warmed up. We actually got rain last night. There I was with daughter Ruth, sitting in the hot tub, getting pelted by a big fat downpour. I enjoyed it anyway. Still luvin' my hot tub. Anyway, rain is predicted for the next few days, so that is good. I'd rather have that than snow while we're away.

This is my last post before my trip. We're leaving in the morning. You'll hear again from me after we get back.

You know, it's really too bad S.R. Kertzer discontinued their Northern Worsted. It's wonderful yarn. Oh well. This is the last Knitwits item I'm doing for the year. I turned it in yesterday at the December meeting just to give Jan, our fearless leader, a hard time. It was our distribution meeting where we hand out everything to the 12 charity organizations we knit/crochet for. Here's a pic of everything we made for the year, well over 2300 items.

At the beginning of the month of November I began working on 5 Christmas themed outfits for Ellowyne Wilde dolls that I wanted to put in my Etsy store. I was doing great until the week of the storm and power outage. After that everything just seemed to go to heck for me and I didn't get them done in time. There's a very small window in which one can sell holiday themed doll clothes and for me it's over. If I wasn't going on the cruise I would be fine, but I am going on the cruise, so, no Etsy for this holiday.

I have everything but the jewelry done, which wouldn't take long but when I started thinking about all the photography involved and then getting each listing written and put up on Etsy, which is hours of work, I became overwhelmed.

The past few weeks have been incredibly stressful. Besides the week of storms and power outage, there was Thanksgiving, and I've also lost 3 family members (including Cable) in 3 weeks, and the loss of Cable hit me very hard. I got sick from the stress which put me out for a couple days, so something had to go. I'll do Valentines themed things for February and save the Christmas stuff until next year. Anyway, for my own record keeping, I'm posting the sweaters and hats I've made. These are all my designs, patterns not available.

Made with lace weight Elann Silken Kydd on size 3 needles. Size 8 silver line red seed beads are knit in the neck ruffle. The fabric in this feels a little too thin and flimsy for my taste. I decided after this one to start using 2 strands held together.

This one was knit with 2 strands of Cascade Yarns Kid Seta in red which is a lace weight mohair, silk, and nylon blend. It's nice to work with, as mohair goes. I used a different lace pattern in the ruffle than in the beaded one. I like it a lot better. I also like the fabric much better using 2 strands.

I used Cascade Yarns Kid Seta in Pewter for this one. I did the same lace pattern as the red one, and knit with 2 strands held together.

This one is knit holding 2 strands of the lace weight Elann Silken Kydd on size 3 needles. I love how it turned out.

I started getting a little tired of mohair, so I dug in my doll yarn stash and found a skein of Lion Brand Vanna's Glamour sport weight yarn in Topaz Gold. It's an acrylic/polyester blend with a gold metallic thread. I love love love the way this one turned out! I added the lace pattern at the bottom hem and I definitely need to do more of this design.

I knit hats too and decorated them so they would be Christmasy.

I used Cestari Ash Lawn Collection in natural white for the first one. This yarn is a cotton/wool blend and I love the results. However, it comes in just a few rather spring like colors, so I had to change yarns for the rest of the hats.

I decided to try Ella Rae Classic Sport which is 100% wool and made this heather green one. I used one strand, which is okay, but I like a firmer fabric. I definitely like this yarn for hats though.

So I made a second one in Ella Rae Classic Sport, this time knitting with 2 strands held together and the same needle size (5). It's perfect! Oddly, I got the same gauge, but a much firmer and more 'hatty' fabric. I love this particular color too. It's brown heather with green and red mixed in. Perfect for a Christmas hat.

The fourth hat is made using Lion Brand Vanna's Glamour in Platinum (2 strands held together). It has a silver metallic thread running through it. I shortened the brim and rolled it up a bit.

I need to figure out what knitting I'm going to take with me on our trip.

I should be able to re-purpose all the sweaters and hats for Valentines outfits. I sewed the decorations on the hats, so I can easily remove them. So not all is lost. I look forward to finding Valentine fabric that will work with them. (I see visits to my favorite quilting shop in my future.)

I restarted the Mukluks again I began a year ago for my cousin. This is the 3rd try and I'm not happy with it. I am having a very hard time with them. For some reason, I can't get the tension right when changing needles (knitting in the round). I'm frustrated with it. Actually thinking about just chucking this project and finding some other pattern to knit for her.

This week I've spent my time getting ready for our trip. There was a lot to get done. We're leaving day after tomorrow. I'm very excited. It will be good to get away for a bit. I need the break. Especially to somewhere warm.

The weather has been very cold. Didn't get above freezing since Thanksgiving day. Today, though, it finally warmed up a bit. We actually got a bit of rain which melted some of the snow off our roof. (Did I mention we got about 3 inches of snow?) Forecast is for more rain over the next few days. I can live with that. I would prefer our house not get buried in snow while we're away. I don't want it to be difficult for my sister-in-law Kathryn to get in and out of the driveway. She's going to be taking care of our cats while we're gone.